Simonyi, like previous commercial travellers, is playing up the research and educational angles of his trip, noting that he is in talks to participate in experiments on the health effects of spaceflight. (As MSNBC reports, though, he’s not necessarily as testy about being called a “space tourist”.) “I might be the first nerd in space,” he claims, something that many of his professional and commercial predecessors might dispute.

Simonyi, not surprisingly, has his own web site devoted to the flight, including imagery and a blog. (The question is, will he “blog” from space?). On the site, he says that his goals for his flight are to “advance civilian space flight, assist research for the International Space Station, and involve young people in the science of space travel.”

[…] Meanwhile, publicists for prospective space tourist Charles Simonyi announced that Simonyi’s web site devoted to the mission has been updated with videos and other “rich new content”. The site, CharlesInSpace.com, isn’t new—it was announced in October—but it does appear to have some more material. The site does still have a flashy (and Flash-y) interface that can be sluggish, and his blog hasn’t been updated since January 22. […]